Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CDC 'Encouraging' But Not Requiring Cruisegoers Exposed To Hantavirus To Isolate At Home
The Hill: CDC Not Requiring Hantavirus Cruise Passengers To Isolate At Home
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday that the hantavirus remains a low public health risk and while the agency is “encouraging” American passengers of the infected cruise ship to isolate at home, the absence of a formal quarantine order means these individuals can go out in public if they choose. “At this moment, I want to emphasize that the risk to the general public is low. Our top priority is both the passengers who are on the ship and American communities,” David Fitter, incident manager for the CDC’s hantavirus response said in a press briefing. (Choi, 5/13)
CIDRAP: CDC: Risk To General Public From Hantavirus Is Low
Today, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 100 personnel from the agency are actively working on monitoring passengers from the MV Hondius for hantavirus and are confident in the United States’ ability to control any further spread of the deadly rodent virus. David Fitter, MD, incident manager for CDC’s hantavirus response, and Brendan Jackson, MD, MPH, CDC team lead in Nebraska, where most of the Americans who were aboard the ship are being monitored, emphasized in a press conference that, unlike COVID-19, hantavirus is a virus that has been studied for decades. (Soucheray, 5/13)
Tracking potential exposures —
Bloomberg: Hantavirus Shows No Sign Of Mutation As US Cruise Case Cleared
The respiratory virus behind a deadly outbreak on a cruise ship is showing no sign of mutating to become more contagious, European health officials said, as a US patient initially treated as a potential hantavirus case has been cleared of infection. One passenger who had been taken to the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit was medically cleared and moved to a quarantine facility, the University of Nebraska Medical Center said in an email Wednesday. (Fourcade and Gale, 5/13)
The Hill: Map: The States Monitoring Hantavirus Exposures After Cruise Ship Outbreak
Among those within the federal quarantine locations are two residents from California, one each from North Carolina and Oregon, and three each from New York and Utah. While officials did not identify the Oregon resident, Dr. Stephen Kornfield previously said he was aboard the cruise ship and has since identified himself as the passenger who tested positive. Health officials earlier this week called his results inconclusive – one PCR test produced a negative result, while another was positive. All of the passengers, who are now in quarantine, can remain there for 42 days, the incubation period for the Andes strain. They can also choose to quarantine elsewhere, according to health officials. (Bink, 5/13)
San Francisco Chronicle: Fifth California Resident Possibly Exposed To Hantavirus
State health officials identified a fifth California resident exposed to the Andes hantavirus aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship last month. The California resident was a passenger on the cruise ship, the California Department of Public Health said Wednesday. They got off the ship before the outbreak was discovered, returned briefly to California, then left the state. (Hodgman, 5/13)
KFF Health News: Hantavirus News Roundup: From Céline Gounder Of KFF Health News
Following a recent outbreak of the deadly hantavirus on the cruise ship MV Hondius, KFF Health News editor-at-large and infectious disease doctor Céline Gounder spoke to numerous media outlets about the risks from the disease. Here are some highlights from Gounder on the evolving story. (Gounder, 5/14)
Calming fears, detailing disease spread —
ABC News: What Parents Should Know About Talking To Kids About Hantavirus
As concerns around hantavirus continue to make headlines, many parents may be wondering how to answer questions from worried kids without causing panic. Hantavirus, a family of viruses that can cause serious illness and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has recently been in the news following an outbreak aboard the Dutch cruise ship MV Hondius, which departed from Argentina in early April. (Braun-Silva, 5/13)
The Hill: Why Do Germs, Diseases Spread On Cruises?
As global health officials continue to monitor the hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship, French authorities have ordered 1,700 passengers on the British cruise ship Ambition to quarantine due to norovirus. Last week, yet another cruise ship, a Caribbean Princess with 3,100 passengers on board, reported a norovirus outbreak. The apparent recent surge in sicknesses aboard cruise liners prompts the question: Are cruises breeding grounds for disease? (Martichoux, 5/13)
In related news —
AP: British Cruise Ship With 1,700 On Board Hit By Illness, No Hantavirus Link
Over 1,700 passengers and crew on a British cruise ship were ordered to remain on board after an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness, French authorities said Wednesday. They dismissed any link to a deadly hantavirus outbreak on another vessel that has put European health authorities on alert. The Ambition was midway through a 14-night cruise from Belfast and Liverpool that was due to take in ports in northern Spain and along France’s Atlantic coast.It reached Bordeaux on Tuesday evening, according to the operator, Ambassador Cruise Line. (Adamson, 5/13)
The New York Times: Nancy Cox, Who Worked To Conquer The Wily Flu, Dies At 77
Nancy J. Cox, who as the longtime leader of the influenza program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention oversaw the development of a global network of forecasting and prevention, in the process earning a reputation as one of the world’s foremost experts on the flu and the constantly mutating viruses that cause it, died on April 24 at her home in Atlanta. She was 77. Her husband, Evan Lindsay, said the cause was glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. (Risen, 5/13)
